Sending free text to providers when compliance action finalised 001-10040100

A job seeker, who is in the penalty zone, fails to attend a provider appointment on 6 June 2023. The provider submits a mutual obligation failure using an incident date of 5 June 2023.

A review of the Provider Report and the job seeker's record shows that the job seeker did not have a compulsory appointment to attend on 5 June 2023. Their online diary shows the job seeker was required to attend a compulsory appointment on 6 June 2023.

Outcome

PST staff:

• reject the failure using rejection code: 'Unable to determine reported failure – failure information incorrect (UDF)', and
• record free text: 'PR incident date does not match notes on PR or the job seeker's online diary.'

A job seeker in the penalty zone fails to attend a provider appointment on 06 June 2023. The provider submits a mutual obligation failure.

Later that day, the job seeker contacts their provider to discuss non-attendance at the appointment. During the contact, the job seeker does not offer any reason to the provider about why they did not attend. The provider tells the job seeker because they do not have a valid reason for non-attendance, Services Australia will be notified.

When the job seeker contacts the Participation Solutions Team (PST) who have started a mutual obligation failure investigation, they disclose they had been fearful an ex-partner would be waiting for them at the provider’s premises on that day. The job seeker adds they did not feel comfortable telling their provider about their concerns at the time. The job seeker also advises that while they were talking to their provider, their children came home from school, and they did not want to discuss it 'while the kids were around'.

Outcome

PST staff:

• immediately engage a PST-skilled social worker to complete a mandatory consult due to the job seeker disclosing domestic violence concerns. See Accessing a PST-skilled social worker for more information
• update the job seeker's Circumstances Impacting Compliance by adding a new circumstance of Family relationships/Domestic violence. See Circumstances impacting job seeker compliance
• reject the mutual obligation failure using: 'Major personal crisis affected capacity to comply'
• record free text: 'PR rejected due to major personal circumstance impacting capacity to attend and contact prior on incident date. Alternate servicing such as phone appointments or servicing at a different site for a period of time may be beneficial.'

A Community Development Program (CDP) participant contacts the Participation Solutions Team (PST) about a submitted non-attendance failure. During the call, PST staff notice that although the CDP participant has good English speaking skills, they are not able to understand more complex concepts in English. An interpreter is engaged to help explain the CDP participant's mutual obligation requirements and the non-attendance failure under investigation.

Outcome

PST staff:

• reject the non-attendance failure using: 'Language/Literacy/Numeracy issues affected capacity to comply' as the CDP participant did not have a good understanding of the impacts non-attendance would have
• record free text: 'General English language skills are good, however, an interpreter is required to convey more complex concepts.'
• update the job seeker's Circumstances Impacting Compliance by adding a new circumstance of Limited language/numeracy English. See Circumstances impacting job seeker compliance
• update the Other Contact Details (OCD) screen with interpreter details if appropriate